BT TV and EE broadband earn most complaints

Ofcom has published on the volumes of consumer complaints made to Ofcom against the major providers of telecoms and pay-TV services.

The latest report covers the three-month period from January to March 2015 (Q1), and reports on the complaints made to 13 providers of fixed line telephone, fixed line broadband, pay monthly mobile and pay-TV services. This is the seventeenth quarterly Ofcom report to include complaints data by provider, and the thirteenth report to include data for pay-TV complaints.

The total volume of telecoms and pay-TV complaints made to Ofcom decreased slightly in Q1 2015.

While overall complaints volumes were marginally higher in Q1 for broadband and pay-TV services, fixed line telephone and mobile pay monthly services both saw a reduction in complaints.

Claudio Pollack, Director of Ofcom’s Content and Consumer Group, said: “Publishing provider-specific complaints data is one way we’re able to help consumers make informed choices about the services on offer to them. The reduction in the total volume of complaints is welcome, but there is still room for providers to improve their performance. This report is one of a number of ways we seek to give providers incentive to address areas of customer dissatisfaction.”

Pay-TV services

BT continued to generate the highest volume of pay-TV complaints per 1,000 customers (0.15).

TalkTalk Group generated the second-highest complaints volumes (0.12 per 1,000 customers) and saw an increase in complaints since Q4 2014.

The number of complaints against Virgin Media was in line with the industry average (0.04 per 1,000 customers).

Sky was the only provider to generate fewer complaints than the industry average (0.01 per 1,000 customers), and it remained the best-performing pay TV provider.

Broadband services

EE generated the most complaints for broadband as a proportion of its customer base during the first quarter of this year, with 0.51 per 1,000 customers.

This reflected an increase in complaints about EE’s broadband since Q4 2014 (0.42 per 1,000 customers in Q4 2014), and the highest level of complaints since Q1 2013.

Problems relating to faults, service and provision (37%), billing, pricing and charges (20%) and complaints handling (20%) were the main drivers of complaints about EE broadband.

BT, Plusnet and TalkTalk all generated complaint volumes above the industry average, with TalkTalk also seeing a complaints increase (up to 0.26 per 1,000 customers).

Virgin Media complaints (0.09 per 1,000 customers) were below the industry average, but had increased since Q4 2014 (0.06 per 1,000 customers).